


Drabble 04 - Parting Shot

by Aadler



Series: Drabbles [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:07:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aadler/pseuds/Aadler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Setting: Buffy, Season 2<br/>Spoilers: “the Dark Age” (S2-08)<br/>Keywords: Ethan Rayne. Literary allusion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drabble 04 - Parting Shot

**Parting Shot**  
by Aadler  
 **Copyright March 2006**

* * *

Disclaimer: Characters from _Angel: the Series_ are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, and the WB.

* * *

  
Chaos seethes around her. Many faces, few familiar; strident, competing voices; Ethan normally scorns petty revenge, preferring to think more grandly. You want payback, ladle it on with relish, that’s his style. Make a splash, and be sure to sign your work. Still, proportion is a valuable artistic tool, and _le mot juste_ can be as satisfying — and effective — as a rapier thrust.

Fleeing Sunnydale, post-Eyghon, he pauses to drop Ripper a postcard: _Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan”. Alarmingly apt._

Cryptic, to be sure, but Ripper will understand the reference. The work cited contains Hobbes’ famous characterization of human existence, popularly abbreviated to “nasty, brutish, and short”.

Very much like Ripper’s Slayer.

   
end


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